Met warning went unheard

Had the state government heeded the warning from Srinagar’s meteorological office two days before the snow tsunami hit south Kashmir, h...

Had the state government heeded the warning from Srinagar’s meteorological office two days before the snow tsunami hit south Kashmir, hundreds of lives could have been saved.

‘‘We had already communicated the warning to the state administration,’’ says G.K. Mohanty, director of the Met Department, Srinagar. ‘‘We even requested Radio Kashmir and Srinagar Doordarshan to make repeated broadcasts…We informed the divisional commissioner’s office, police control room, traffic police and the state media…Even if others are at fault, we get the blame.’’

CM Mufti Mohammad Sayeed’s secretary, Nayeem Akhtar, said even if the Met department had warned of heavy snowfall, it doesn’t help. ‘‘We have a thousand villages like Waltengo Nar spread across Kashmir where a similar tragedy can take place. There is hardly anything possible to avert a disaster caused by the nature’s fury.’’

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Divisional Commissioner, Kashmir Khursheed Ahmad Ganai was not available for comment. However, SSP (Traffic) Rouf-ul-Hassan agrees the forecast was ‘‘unfavourable’’. ‘‘Who believes in these predictions?’’

Hassan insists ‘‘nobody is stranded on this side of the (Jawahar) tunnel’’. ‘‘Our jurisdiction is upto the tunnel. And then the road is closed not because of the snow but due to the landslides.’’ He adds they had mentioned unambiguously that the forecast is not favourable and people should proceed only under pressing circumstances.

The Srinagar-Jammu national highway was closed after the snowstorm and around 4,000 passengers have been stranded on the highway for more than a week now.

Sources in the Met department say the matter could also be taken up in Parliament.

Bashaarat Masood

Bashaarat Masood is a Special Correspondent with The Indian Express. He has been covering Jammu and Kashmir, especially the conflict-ridden Kashmir valley, for two decades. Bashaarat joined The Indian Express after completing his Masters in Mass Communication and Journalism from the University in Kashmir. He has been writing on politics, conflict and development. Bashaarat was awarded with the Ramnath Goenka Excellence in Journalism Awards in 2012 for his stories on the Pathribal fake encounter. ... Read More

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